The Intermittent LRI Blog

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of LRI’s founding, I am pleased to announce the release of Marcel  Lanteaume’s brilliant and tautly-plotted serial killer/impossible crime Golden Age classic The Thirteenth Bullet.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/ASINB08HB9VHTV

This is LRI’s thirtieth novel since its tentative and hesitant founding, following a WSJ article on the (then) new technology of print-on-demand. LRI has also published five collections, one anthology and two reference books.

Starting with the books of the current maestro, Paul Halter, we first branched out into French Golden Age classics, such as the Lanteaume, then into the audacious contemporary Japanese version of Golden Age: honkaku. Throw in a couple of almost-impossible-to-find English-language classics and it’s hard to find a more varied portfolio.

I have been surprised and delighted by the many plaudits the books have received from many quarters, which are posted alongside each title. And I am indebted to many friends and contributors (whom I’m too cowardly to mention by name, for fear of leaving someone out) without whom the manuscripts would never have seen the light of day and the web-site never have been created.

There is still one arrow left in LRI’s quiver for 2020–another of those audacious honkakus.

And I hope to keep going until I reach fifty (books, that is, not years).

John P.

I am delighted to announce the publication of Paul Halter’s brand new novel, with a worldwide exclusive in celebration of LRI’s 10th anniversary year. Here’s Publishers Weekly’s starred review:

‘Set in 1924, Halter’s exceptionally clever fifth Owen Burns mystery to be translated into English (after 2019’s The Gold Watch) finds Burns investigating a series of bizarre events in the English village of Buckworth, which has been haunted for centuries by a specter known as the White Lady, whose appearances have always been bad omens. A number of members of the wealthy Richards family, including its elderly patriarch, Sir Matthew, have seen the White Lady, who managed to disappear from a room whose one exit was under observation and pass through a solid fence. The matter turns more serious after Lethia Seagrave, the local soothsayer and possibly Sir Matthew’s lover, predicts that the next appearance will result in actual harm, a prophecy that’s borne out when someone dies after being touched on the forehead by a figure who looks like an attractive woman dressed all in white. Further visions of the White Lady ratchet up the tension. Halter once again makes crafting logical solutions to multiple impossibilities look easy.’

Enjoy!

The highly respected Michael Dirda, mystery critic of the Washington Post reviews honkaku classics, including Soi Shimada’s classic The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, and LRI’s Tetsuya Ayukawa collection (“dazzling trickery… mind-spinning”)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/locked-room-masterpieces-from-japan-are-the-perfect-escape-for-summer/2020/08/04/c1049626-d5ac-11ea-9c3b-dfc394c03988_story.html

“… excellent and highly recommended…” from a thoughtful and knowledgeable blogger

http://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-red-locked-room-2020-by-tetsuya.html

The highly estimable Moonlight Detective blogspot calls it “tremendously enjoyable”

http://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2020/05/death-out-of-nowhere-1945-by-alexis.html

“…outstanding, ingenious… very suspenseful…
I highly recommend this book not only to impossible crime fans, but also to general mystery fans. They will be delighted.”

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3336093406

“… outstanding collection… excels at impossible crimes… gifted writer…”

https://www.publishersweekly.com/979-8-635405-00-0

Few writers of detective fiction can match both John Dickson Carr and Freeman Wills Crofts at their own game. Included in this superb collection by Tetsuya Ayukawa, recognized as the doyen of the honkaku mystery, are four impossible crime stories and three unbreakable alibi tales. The final story “The Red Locked Room” can lay claim to be one of the finest ever written in the genre.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088B579S4

Until yesterday, I hadn’t been out of the apartment since March 13, but cabin fever and sunshine persuaded me and my lovely wife to take a stroll in Riverside Park (observing all the rules, of course). Here’s a photo. We look like Bonnie and Clyde.

Being confined to barracks has allowed me to make progress on two new projects: a collection of honkaku stories by the Japanese maestro Tetsuya Ayukawa (imminent) and a brand new Halter novel. Watch this space.

And keep safe…

John

https://vimeo.com/399733860

My wife Helen (who escaped from Communist China many moons ago and despises the party) and I are now in the epicentre of the epidemic: New York City has one third of total US deaths to date. We are both well but in self-isolation.

Amazon has decided to abandon all book production and shipment for at least another two weeks, to concentrate on food and medical supplies. Can’t argue with that, but it does mean that I won’t even be able to order proof copies for the stuff I’m currently working on, such as a great collection of honkaku short stories and a brand new Paul Halter novel.

Hopefully the nightmare (and the overblown hysteria that came with it–see above–will soon be over.

John P.